Alchemist is the publication and access system for Caltech Archives. It takes digital material described in ArchivesSpace and publishes it to the web as static HTML using the Universal Viewer for IIIF images, HTML5 for video, and PDF.js for PDF files. We have adopted ARKs for persistent URLs and reciprocally link between Alchemist pages and ArchivesSpace records. Much of how it works is specific to our decisions and infrastructure; it is not standalone software. It is published for anyone to look at and adapt for other uses.
uv run alchemist.py --help
uv run alchemist.py validate --help
uv run alchemist.py execute --helpSee CONFIGURATION.md for getting started.
See DEVELOPMENT.md for getting started.
Software produced by the Caltech Library is Copyright © 2026 California Institute of Technology. This software is freely distributed under a modified BSD 3-clause license. Please see the LICENSE file for more information.